> for example, I could directly my car for something else valuable far more easily than I could directly trade bitcoins and cars aren't a very meaningful medium of exchange today.
Are you sure about that? Bitcoins are easily divisible, a car isn't. Yes, you can take your car apart but the sum of the parts is worth much less than the whole car. Bitcoins can be easily transported and even transferred internationally. Exporting a car incurs a lot of overhead in transport fees and taxes. Even selling a car to someone on the other side of a large country might end up being too expensive.
No matter what you think of bitcoin, it should be compared to existing national currencies, gold, etc. I like the concept of bitcoin, but I believe that even risky currencies like those of (say) Mexico, Turkey, etc are a better bet than bitcoin.
>Yes, you can take your car apart but the sum of the parts is worth much less than the whole car
The opposite, actually, is true. It's not very intuitive, but yeah; I've got a '96 Nissan maxima with unrepaired body damage and what sounds like a suspension problem that I've gotta get rid of. If I wanted to sell it fast? I think I'd have a hard time getting four hundred bucks for it. (I mean, if I drove it into a car buying business and wanted to walk away with cash) But, the salvage yard where it would end up? I bet they'd make that much back selling all the windows and tires... then what they'd get for the other parts would be gravy.
I think the key to understanding this is that selling a car all at once is way less effort than selling each part individually. Sales takes effort and we're only measuring value within the context of a sale.
(nothing to do with bitcoin; I just think that this is an interesting way to point out that the way we measure value ends up giving us some non-intuitive answers to how much a thing is worth.
Are you sure about that? Bitcoins are easily divisible, a car isn't. Yes, you can take your car apart but the sum of the parts is worth much less than the whole car. Bitcoins can be easily transported and even transferred internationally. Exporting a car incurs a lot of overhead in transport fees and taxes. Even selling a car to someone on the other side of a large country might end up being too expensive.
No matter what you think of bitcoin, it should be compared to existing national currencies, gold, etc. I like the concept of bitcoin, but I believe that even risky currencies like those of (say) Mexico, Turkey, etc are a better bet than bitcoin.